Janet Jackson attorney demands Vanity Fair retraction

Janet Jackson’s lawyer is demanding a retraction from Vanity Fair magazine over a report that suggested the singer delayed her late brother Michael’s funeral over a financial dispute.

Lawyer Blair G. Brown has slammed claims printed in the November issue that Janet held up the burial in 2009 while waiting to be repaid the $40,000 she gave to cemetery bosses as a deposit for a burial plot.

In a letter to Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, Brown insists the story, which was an excerpt from Randall Sullivan’s upcoming book, “Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson,” is “untrue” and “outrageous.”

Brown writes, “This story is particularly hurtful and distressing because of Ms. Jackson’s strong desire to serve her brother, whom she loved dearly, and her wish to stand with and support her family.”

The attorney goes on to brand the article “replete with additional false and defamatory statements” regarding Janet, and demands a retraction.

The “Thriller” icon was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in California on Sept. 3, 2009, more than two months after his death.